Incorporation of Native Plants for Biodiversity Conservation in South Texas Agroecosystems

I address the concerning disconnect between food production and regenerative ecological principles. First, understanding the foundational processes of seed-dormancy and germination are essential for successful restoration efforts using native species. We examine four common seed treatments (aerated hydroprime, acid scarification, cold stratification, sand scarification) on twelve commercially available species native to south Texas. Pappophorum bicolor Fourn. (pink pappusgrass) was sown in the field with the aerated hydroprime treatment, D. virgatus (Willd.) B.L. Turner (prostrate bundleflower) was planted after sand scarification treatment, and Ratibida columnifera (Nutt.) Woot. & Standl. (Mexican hat) was seeded without treatment. Small-scale field trials were conducted to investigate arthropod diversity and abundance, analyzed by functional guilds and role as pest or beneficial. Eggplant was incorporated in the plots to examine potential cash crop benefits in association with native plant hosts of arthropod-mediated ecosystem services but showed no significance between treatments. D. virgatus supported significantly higher pest populations, particularly Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae (whitefly), than control. P. bicolor had significantly higher diversity than D. virgatus. The uses for native plants in food production in the Lower Rio Grande Valley is only now being researched and deserve further exploration to foster more stable food systems and restore habitat in south Texas

Foot and Ankle Injury - Soccer

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Elbow Injury - Football

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Musculoskeletal Injury — Olympic Weightlifting

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Leg Injury - World Champion Super-Heavyweight Weightlifter

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Beyond Recovery: Colonization, Health and Healing for Indigenous People in Canada

How do we limit our focus to mental health when Indigenous teaching demands a much wider lens? How do we respond to mental health recovery when Indigenous experience speaks to a very different approach to healing, and how can we take up the health of Indigenous people in Canada without a discussion of identity and colonization? We cannot, for the mental health and recovery of Indigenous people in Canada have always been tied to history, identity, politics, language and dislocation. Thus, in this paper, our aim is to make clear that history, highlight the impacts of colonization and expound on Indigenous healing practices taking place in Toronto. Based on findings from a local research project, we argue these healing practices go beyond limited notions of recovery and practice, offering profound and practical ways to address the physical, emotional, spiritual and mental health of Indigenous peoples

More Than Just a Hand Injury in a World Champion

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Conceptualizing soil organic matter into particulate and mineral-associated forms to address global change in the 21st century.

Managing soil organic matter (SOM) stocks to address global change challenges requires well-substantiated knowledge of SOM behavior that can be clearly communicated between scientists, management practitioners, and policy makers. However, SOM is incredibly complex and requires separation into multiple components with contrasting behavior in order to study and predict its dynamics. Numerous diverse SOM separation schemes are currently used, making cross-study comparisons difficult and hindering broad-scale generalizations. Here, we recommend separating SOM into particulate (POM) and mineral-associated (MAOM) forms, two SOM components that are fundamentally different in terms of their formation, persistence, and functioning. We provide evidence of their highly contrasting physical and chemical properties, mean residence times in soil, and responses to land use change, plant litter inputs, warming, CO2 enrichment, and N fertilization. Conceptualizing SOM into POM versus MAOM is a feasible, well-supported, and useful framework that will allow scientists to move beyond studies of bulk SOM, but also use a consistent separation scheme across studies. Ultimately, we propose the POM versus MAOM framework as the best way forward to understand and predict broad-scale SOM dynamics in the context of global change challenges and provide necessary recommendations to managers and policy makers

“Teamwork done to a tee”:a golf caddie’s perspective on their perceived role and associated skills

Objectives: This study explored what caddies perceive as their role and the associated skills required to support golfers. Method: Semi-structured interviews were completed with seven Professional male caddies from the United Kingdom (3 Caddies) and USA (4 Caddies). Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed and reflexive thematic analysis performed.Results: Thematic analysis generated twenty-one lower-order themes and six higher-order themes, which were organised into three dimensions; (i) the demands of being a caddie; (ii) caddie’s expertise to do the role; and (iii), importance of support.Conclusion: Caddies demonstrate expertise in a range of areas from perceptual to intrapersonal skills when developing and maintaining effective golfer-caddie partnerships. Our findings highlight the skills the caddies require are role dependent. The findings from this study have implications on understanding future training needs for caddies in relation to maintaining effective golfer-caddie relationships and best practices to support caddies

A qualitative synthesis of research into social motivational influences across the athletic career span

This study represents a qualitative synthesis of research examining the socio-environmental influences of coaches, parents and peers on athlete motivation, across the athletic career-span. Using a critical-realist perspective, meta-interpretation methodology was deployed to search and analyse the literature. On-going, iterative analysis generated new areas of enquiry and new search terms, until the emerging analysis reached the points of saturation. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were developed during this process to produce a clear statement of applicability for the study. In the final analysis, a developmental structure was specified to describe the athletic career trajectory, together with a horizontal structure capturing seven domains of the motivational atmosphere surrounding athletes (competition, training, evaluation, emotion, authority, social-support, and relatedness), and a vertical structure varying in terms of level-of-abstraction: The global/broad ‘motivational atmosphere’ containing contextual ‘climates’, built from immediate/situational ‘motivational conditions’. A model of the overall ‘motivational atmosphere’ in sport, based on a meteorological analogy, is offered with a view to stimulating critical debate and new research directions that reflect the complexity of interpersonal motivation in sport